The Army-Navy game: 13 historical facts you probably don’t know

On Dec. 10, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy will meet on the gridiron for the 117th time. A game that steeped in tradition is bound to have some interesting details associated with it. Here are a few you may not know.

1. The Army and Navy have faced off a total of 116 times. To date, Navy has 60 wins, Army has 49. There have been seven ties.

2. Cadets and midshipmen played the first Army-Navy football game Nov. 29, 1890 on “The Plain” at West Point. Navy had been playing organized football since 1879 and defeated the newly established Army team, 24-0.

3. The 271 members of the Corps of Cadets each contributed 52 cents to pay half of the Navy’s traveling costs for the 1890 game.

4. Although today we know the game as an annual tradition (and it has been such since 1930), there have been 10 times when the Army-Navy game was not played.

It’s said that the longest interruption, which lasted from 1894 to 1898, came about after an argument between an Army general and a Navy admiral almost resulted in a duel following the 1893 game.